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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29073183">A Happy Beginning</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artemis_Egeria/pseuds/Artemis_Egeria'>Artemis_Egeria</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>I Will See You Where the Shadow Ends [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe, WandaVision (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon is broke so i fixed it, Episode 4 spoilers, Fix-It, Gen, WandaVision episode 4, WandaVision spoilers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 09:48:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>559</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29073183</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artemis_Egeria/pseuds/Artemis_Egeria</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Monica returns.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>I Will See You Where the Shadow Ends [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2195511</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>27</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Happy Beginning</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I forgot how motivating bad canon can be. There were many things I was unhappy about in Episode 4, but one thing was particularly unnecessary and easily fixed. So here it is!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As Monica came to awareness, she automatically looked to the bed next to her. But her mother was not there. The bed looked untouched and ready for a new patient, but that was all wrong. Maria had just been there after her most recent chemo treatment.</p><p>She rushed outside, only to see chaos in the halls. People were rushing here and there, heedless of everyone around then. The desperation was palpable.</p><p>Monica finally caught sight of the nurse who had been so kind helping her mother through every treatment. The woman’s jaw fell open, but she quickly recovered herself. “Monica! Maria always knew you would come back!”</p><p>“Of course, I would! Wait- what do you mean, ‘come back’? I never left. Where’s my mother?”</p><p>The nurse gestured for her to wait. She weaved her way masterfully through the crowd to a side office. When she returned, she was carrying a handful of envelopes. Monica could recognize her mother’s precise handwriting. “These will do a better job of explaining than I ever could. She left one after every annual checkup. Good luck. I have to go now. Medicine never stops.” She disappeared before Monica could even thank her. Or process that she had said <em>annual</em> checkups.</p><p>She finally found a distant office in the hospital. She sank down into the desk chair and opened the first letter with shaking hands. It was dated August 2018, just a few months after the treatment that Monica was here for. It detailed Maria’s grief over mysteriously losing her daughter while she was in the middle of fighting cancer. But Maria never lost hope. After all, Carol had come back to her after so many years missing. There was no reason Monica could not return as well.</p><p>The next letter, dated 2019, spoke of the difficulties of living in the new Post-Snap world. Maria was still kept busy working for S.W.O.R.D. She was one of the few trying to keep the old world together.</p><p>Monica flashed through 2020, 2021, 2022. She could barely wrap her mind around these strange new facts. But her eyes landed on a calendar that read August 2, 2023. Monica had always been able to adapt. She had welcomed aliens into her life at the age of ten.</p><p>She finally opened the last letter, dated just a few weeks earlier. It explained how Maria was taking a leave from S.W.O.R.D. She was not as young as she used to be, and the last five years had been wearing. She told Monica to come home to Louisiana if she received the letter. She had also included up-to-date contact information.</p><p>***</p><p>Monica stepped out of the car in front of the beloved home where she had grown up when they weren’t living at S.W.O.R.D. headquarters.</p><p>It was not Maria who greeted her first, but Carol, who looked like she hadn’t aged a day since Monica had last seen her thirty years earlier. Monica ran into the woman’s arms without hesitation. It had been far too long.</p><p>After a few moments, she raised her head to see her mother looking at them with a misty-eyed smile. She was becoming ever more sentimental. Monica finally broke away to embrace her mother.</p><p>Soon, all three women were embracing and crying into each other’s shoulders.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Honestly, Marvel wouldn’t have even had to show the second scene, just mention that Maria finally retired and was living happily in Louisiana. Or any number of other scenarios rather than just killing her off.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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